


A Quieter Anger

by Manuscriptor



Category: Thor (Movies), Thor: Ragnarok - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Hulk deserves love, Play Fighting, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), as friends, just a nice recovery fic ya know?, just saying, ya'll utilize that relationship tag!!!! pls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 07:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18751363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manuscriptor/pseuds/Manuscriptor
Summary: Post Thor: RagnarokHulk and Valkyrie spend some time with each other, just like they used to back at Sakaar, both trying to cope with the people they are becoming





	A Quieter Anger

Hulk slumped in the hold of the huge space ship, away from the crowds and the noise as the blasters roared in an effort to break the Asgardian atmosphere. Bruce’s voice was a small thing in the back of his mind, not as loud as it normally was but also not as weak as it had been before.

Before.

Hulk wasn’t even sure how he was supposed to split his life into sections with so little he remembered. And what he did remember was all chaos and fighting. Always burning anger. Things trying to hurt him. _People_ trying to hurt him. Hulk wanted safety, and safety meant being alone.

Hulk was alone right now. And that meant safe. He could breathe and relax and let the voice in the back of his head out a little bit. It didn’t feel right to keep it locked up in the very back, behind the anger and the hatred but that was the only place it fit. Hulk couldn’t help it.

The clatter of metal across metal—like someone kicking something or tripping over something or ripping open a weapon—made Hulk snap his head up and shove the voice down.

He growled, tiredly pushing himself to his feet and shaking off the last fight, ready for the next thing that wanted to tear him limb from limb. Just one more enemy. Just one more thing that would clamor and yell and call him a monster and make him unsafe. Hulk growled at the shadows. He would give them a monster.

“Easy, big fella,” an oddly familiar voice said, and the newcomer staggered into the light, catching themselves on a storage unit before they could collapse completely.

Hulk actually did relax. “Angry Lady?” he said.

She was wearing different clothes—some sort of grey armor scratched and dented and covered in gore—and she looked a different sort of more exhausted than what he remembered. And then it struck Hulk as odd that he could remember something outside the anger and hurt and chaos. He latched onto those memories, trying to see more and figure out who this person was if she wasn’t someone who made him angry.

“Yeah, it’s just me,” the woman said, tipping back a huge drink from the oversized bottle she was carrying, swallowing for several long moments before pulling it away from her mouth to study it in the meager light of the hold. “Just me-e-e-e. This Asgardian shit is really good. Forgot about that.”

Hulk slumped back against the wall, too tired to care more and as long as his memories told him that Angry Lady wasn’t bad then he couldn’t bring himself to care. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to close his eyes and let himself rest after everything that had happened. The voice at the back of his mind was clamoring for attention though, and Angry Lady was not very quiet either.

She staggered forward, dragging her feet across the floor and making the metal shriek. It grated on Hulk’s nerves, and he growled at her without thinking.

“Easy, big boy,” Angry Lady said with a laugh.

She reached up with one hand and undid the snaps on her breastplate. She shrugged it off, tossing it to the side where it clattered with even more noise. The chainmail underneath was loose and unfitted, marked with blood and guts from her most recent conquest and perhaps even a little from herself. She took another long swig from her bottle and gave an exaggerated sigh of contentment. She offered it to him.

“I’m serious. This Asgardian shit is the good stuff. I’d bet it’d even hit you pretty good.”

Hulk narrowed his eyes. “Hulk doesn’t want you here. Go away!”

Angry Lady just waved the bottle at him. “Yeah, and I didn’t think I wanted to be here either. Just take a drink so I can pretend I’m drinking with someone. And not alone.”

Hulk grunted and took the bottle. It looked absolutely tiny between his thick fingers, and he had to be careful that he didn’t shatter it accidentally. He brought it to his lips and tipped a bit into his mouth.

The taste immediately burned its way across his tongue and down his throat. He coughed and snarled, dropping the bottle as it had offended him and made him angrier than before. He growled at it without thinking.

Angry Lady caught it before it could hit the floor and just laughed at him. She took a long drink without the reaction that he had had and slumped against the wall next to him, sliding down until they were sitting side-by-side. She heaved a heavy sigh and took another drink.

“Hulk say go away,” Hulk said, glaring down at her through his folded arms.

She was so tiny sitting next to him. If he rolled over there was a threat of crushing her without meaning to. Angry Lady just laughed at him again, a snort that was definitely more tired than before. She dropped the facade almost immediately after that, face falling and the fight showing on her features a lot more.

“Just let me drink,” she said. “Big idiot.”

Hulk scowled. “Hulk not idiot! Hulk just _angry_.”

“You’re always angry,” Angry Lady said around the neck of the bottle. “I like that about you.”

Hulk grunted and watched her finish the last of the liquid. She looked at it in surprise for a moment, like she couldn’t figure out where it had all gone. Then, with a shrug, she threw the bottle across the room.

Hulk flinched without meaning to as it shattered against a storage unit, and he growled at the glittering remains. Just the small noise made all his muscles tense and his fists clench outside of his control, and that just made Hulk even angrier.

"Sorry 'bout that," Angry Lady said, pulling another bottle out of seemingly nowhere and uncapping it. "Forgot you don't like stuff like that." She took a huge swig from this new bottle.

"Hulk don't like anything," Hull said. "Hulk mad, at everything."

"I remember you back on Sakaar," Angry Lady said, talking as if he hadn't said a thing. “You liked a lot of stuff there. The crowds. The cheering. The fights. Even if you didn’t like Grandmaster, you liked everything he gave you. The food.” She held up her own bottle to the light and scrunched her nose. “Not the drinks though.”

Hulk grunted and growled. “Hulk said to leave Hulk alone.”

Angry Lady just scoffed. “And I said I didn’t want to drink alone.”

Hulk rolled his eyes and pulled himself into a ball. A big, green ball that actually wanted to smash the ship around him. The voice at the back of his head had gone quickly silent while he had talked with Angry Lady. The only reason that Hulk even half wanted her to stay was the keep the voice quiet. He wasn’t quite sure how to put that into words so he shoved Angry Lady’s shoulder, not to push her away but just for something to do.

“Jesus, be careful of the drink!” Angry Lady said. “Give me a moment.”

She tipped the bottle up to her mouth and swallowed mouthful after mouthful until the entire thing was empty. She gasped for breath and tossed the bottle aside. It shattered against the wall, but Hulk didn’t flinch this time. Angry Lady wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, pushing herself to her feet.

She staggered and almost fell before getting her hands up.

“Alright,” she said. “Show me what you’ve got.”

Now this was something that Hulk understood. With a growl and a smile, he pushed himself to his feet too, squaring off in front of the Angry Lady.

“Come on, now,” Angry Lady said. “Or I’ll start and you wouldn’t want that.”

Hulk doubted that Angry Lady could defeat him but he took the chance for what it was worth. With a single fist, he swiped at her, intending on knocking her off her feet. It wasn’t supposed to be deadly. Just a good way to start the fight.

Angry Lady ducked under the strike and darted forward. Despite downing two bottles of burning liquor, she moved with incredible grace and speed. She was sure on her feet as whatever fighting instincts that had been ingrained in her muscles took over. She twisted under Hulk’s legs and kicked out the back of his knee.

Hulk didn’t fall. He wasn’t that much of a push over. He let Angry Lady think that she had gotten him, staggering to the one side. Angry Lady bought the ruse though, jumping back and in front of him, still within reach which was her first big mistake. Hulk grabbed her, managing to wrap on of his hands around her chest and stomach, and threw her across the room.

Angry Lady crashed into the same storage container that her first bottle had, but she didn't shatter. Instead, she rolled immediately to her feet, staggering a little but laughing like she was having tons of fun.

Hulk grinned.

“Angry Lady weak,” he said. “Angry Lady not fight good.”

Angry Lady laughed and thumped her chest with a single fist. “Not fight good? Then come and get me, you big oaf!”

Hulk thumped his chest back, double fisted. Something in his mind told him he was like an ape, but that didn’t matter right now.

They traded blows like that for a while. One minute, Hulk would have the advantage, tossing Angry Lady around like she was a sack of flour. The next minute, Angry Lady would be winning, grappling with Hulk, able to hold her own against his heavy fists in a playful way that no one had ever done before. It was . . . nice. Normally, Hulk always fought with someone who was trying to rip out his throat. Not ever in a way that could be considered fun or playful.

Angry Lady seemed to be having just as much fun as he was. She laughed and let herself somersault and roll with the strength that Hulk put behind his blows.

Finally, both of them got too tired to continue. Hulk let Angry Lady twist his arm behind his back and he collapsed onto his stomach, letting her stand on his shoulders in victory. And for the first time, Hulk wasn’t angry that he had lost.

“Told you I was better, you big green idiot,” Angry Lady said, letting go of his arm and plopping down on top of him. She sat on one of his shoulders, legs dangling down next to his right ear.

He let her stay there. It made the voice in his head very, very quiet.

“You’re the exact same,” Angry Lady said, drunkenly picking at his strands of hair. Her voice had lost its teasing quality, and she was much quieter than before. “I guess I was scared you had changed as much as I had.”

“Angry Lady not changed,” Hulk said, closing his eyes and resting his head on his arms. “Angry Lady the same.”

Angry Lady laughed, still quiet, but the tension had broken. She unlatched both of her gauntlets and tossed them to the side where they clattered against the metal of the floor. “Yeah, I didn’t think this armor suited me too much. A uniform never did fit me very well, no matter where I came from.”

“Angry Lady always be Hulk’s friend,” Hulk said. “No matter what clothes.”

Angry Lady patted his shoulder, her voice even quieter than before. “Thanks, big guy.”

Hulk huffed and allowed himself to close his eyes. It was the first time in a while he had done that. The voice in his head always yelled at him and his anger always burned hot in his stomach and behind his eyes. He never had a chance to close them usually, but with Angry Lady on his shoulder, plucking at the odd ends of his hair like a bird almost, he felt like he could.

Normally, that would be irritating—someone constantly picking at him. It would be just another annoyance that made Hulk angrier than he always was. But now, it was soothing. Calm, almost. He didn’t care to put a word to it, didn’t want to think too hard about why it wasn’t as annoying as it always was. He just closed his eyes and let himself have a quieter anger than he normally had.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr @manuscript-or


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